Body Image:

I've found that the real struggle of life as a teenage girl usually pertains to how you view yourself. The commercials on TV, the popular girls at school, and the professional athletes you see, seem to taunt you with their perfect bodies and curves.

For a long time, I believed I was fat. My so called "friends" constantly teased me and made me feel bad about myself. I was sick and tired of going to the mall with them and not being able to fit into any of the clothes I wanted to. I began to eat less and less, to the point where I was too tired to get through the day. As an intense athlete, this new lifestyle began to hit me hard. I was not performing well and would constantly throw up from the amount of physical pressure I put on myself.

At the time, I was in the middle of my Varsity swim season. My coach,  a young woman in her twenties, began to understand what was going on. After practice one day, she pulled me aside. She explained to me that by continuing to push myself to the the physical limits without the adequate nutrients, the further behind I would fall. I guess I already new this, as all athletes do, but I had fallen so far away from myself that I ignored this fact.

 I am an athlete. I play three sports (swimming, basketball- year round, and softball). The fact is that not everyone has a twig figure. For me, my shoulders often bulge and it looks a little weird sometimes, but that's me. I have an athletic build that reflects my personality. Everyone is different in their own imperfect way. Although I am not flat stomached like the models on TV, I am not fat either.

I realized that the more I tried to be like other girls and dress the way they did, the farther I was wandering from my personality. With these thoughts came the realization that the  girls I hung out with were not my friends and just used my insecurities to fuel their own.

Even if you are not an athlete, the message remains the same. Dress the way you want to dress. Express yourself and don't change for anyone! If people can't except your confidence, then they aren't really your friends. What goes around comes around. I know it sounds cheesy, but it's true. You may not be there to see it, but someday the people who you sought to be like, the ones who strived to follow the status quo, will fall. Perfect bodies and popularity won't matter after high school. In life, those who are truly successful are the people who understand who they are and embrace it.

What others think of you isn't what defines you. What defines you is the way you look at yourself and the confidence you tackle life with every day.